C. elegans, a tiny one millimeter long worm, no brains, but it has one of the nervous system – including 302 in a nerve cell, or neuron, exactly. In the 20th century, 70 years, researchers at Cambridge University team decided to create a complete “wiring diagram” of those neurons, how each one is connected to each other. This wiring diagram recently baptism “connectomes”, the similarity in their picture of pairs of chromosomes, the total DNA sequence of the organism. C. elegans connectome, in 1986, a report to take more cumbersome than Yishiernian labor found. A small number of researchers are now dispersed across the globe to cope with a more ambitious project: to discover the brain connectomes prefer to ourselves. Scientists, including several at MIT, where necessary, to accelerate the technical work was slow and laborious process of C. elegans researchers initially be applied to the worm. Perhaps these technologies, they intend to map to our animal cousins and eventually even to those of the connectomes people. Their results can fundamentally change our understanding of the brain.

Mapping thousands of miles of nerve cells, “lead” in the brain could help researchers understand how these neurons to enhance intelligence, personality and memory, says Sebastian Seung, a computational neuroscience at MIT, Professor. Over the past three years, Seung and his students that they want to unlock some of them will allow researchers to connect the building tools. To find connectomes, researchers will need to employ vast computing capacity to deal with the brain images. But first, they need to teach the computer how to search for.

A tangle of networks have been put together connectomes requested an analysis of brain slices of the electron microscope images of the huge number and tracking between neurons have been tangled connections, each of which a projection may be sent to other extracellular few inches.

In the largest medical research Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Germany, neuroscientists at the Laboratory of Winfried Denk collection of dozens of two-person team manually track the connections between neurons in the retina. It is a painstaking process – the need for each neuron to the sight of a few hours, and must be tracked by each of them up to 10 people, in order to find careless errors. Using this manual methods and found that cubic meter connectome mind the work will need to tens of thousands of years, said that Jainism’s Viren, in Seung’s laboratory has recently completed his PhD.

Jainism and post-doctoral colleague Srinivas Turaga want to sign high-powered through computer-assisted significantly speed up the process. To do that, they taught a computer analysis of brain slices, using a common computer called an automated machine learning of science and technology, allowing the computer to change their behavior in response to new data.

Machine learning, researchers teach computers to learn by example. They feed on their computer electron micrographs and these images of people to identify goals. A computer and then allow it to follow the example of people search for the efficiency of algorithms.

“Rather than specify the details of the computer, how to do something, you give it an example of what you want it to do and to speculate how the algorithm trying to do what you want,” said Jain. On the computer in the human after being trained to identify targets, which applies to persons not covered by the tracking electron micrographs. This new technology for the first time on behalf of the computer has been taught effectively divided in any kinds of images, not just neurons.

Jain  and   Turaga have also invented a new way to assess how the right computer, follow the example of tracking in the task. Those measures for the machine learning is crucial, because computers, like class, students learn to expect the task will not be very well, unless the “Check” appropriate to measure performance.

In their earlier effort, the computer weeks or even months, resulting in an accurate and neuron tracing algorithm. However, Jain, and Turaga significant reduction of the time, when they started using a computer equipped with graphics processing cards, give them to quickly perform calculations 50 to 100 times. Now, need their computer programs just a few days can lead to a new tracking algorithms.

Their ultimate goal is to use the computer processing necessary to create the majority of the images connectomes, but they expect people will need to proofread your computer work. Jainism and the Turaga reported their progress on computer vision and the nervous system information processing system meeting international conferences.

Olaf Sporns, first proposed in 2005 by graphic method that connectome the University of Indiana, a neuroscientist, said he initially did not believe that creating their own connections between neurons map only is possible, and that it is the best focused on the high level of connectivity between brain regions.

To “do the resolution of such a micro-level seems to be unfeasible at that time,” he said. “But I now come to such a material might be possible idea.” Seung and his students developed machine learning techniques might be “a big leap forward” type of plan to do in the future reality, Sporns increase.

The first step last year, the National Institute of Health announced a five-year, $ 30 million to develop new technologies Connectome project speculated human brain connectivity. That projects are concentrated mainly at a high level of regional of regional connections. Sporns said he believed a high level of connectivity may be a good draft of the five-year NIH project achieved within schedule, and significant progress will also get to the neurons in neuron map.

Some neuroscientists believe that there may be positive impact on mapping connectomes of the human genome as the procedure. Because genetic researchers can now compare an individual’s genes to find the disease may account for variability, brain researchers may find the wiring diagram on which the distinction is important in Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia as a disease, said Turaga. Because human behavior is learned, no input in the chromosome, comparative human development as connectomes start may also be intelligence. “Compared with adults, the baby is not very much to do. Mind slowly being refined and become more powerful and has been refined thing is wiring diagram,” said Jain.

Began to study neuron map of neuronal connectome many studies a small group began to fragment as a whole. These teams focus on people’s sea monster, the brain regions involved in memory and learning, including a group of Harvard. Other groups began to smaller animals such as rats and brain map zebrafish.

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